Time

The clock winked and all of a sudden I'm in my senior year. Where did all the time go? It seems like yesterday that I was walking in the lower doors of Eastview as an insecure freshman. Now, I'm making college decisions, figuring out a major, and planning the date I'm moving. Time went by so fast. I remember so many times where I thought graduation seemed so far away, like a promise land that was never going to come. I'm so happy to see time that was once frozen was actually moving forward. It's weird to think that around August 7th, I'll be out of here without much looking back. I'll be off in Washington without probably coming back a lot. Time goes by a lot faster than I ever gave it credit for.

Spring Break

Over Spring Break, I went to Europe with the band. We landed in Switzerland and then drove through the beautiful French Alps. We drove through a lot of Southern France and went through various small towns and such. It was pretty cool. Then, we drove to Barcelona, Spain. That was probably my favorite part of the trip. There was so much going on in that city. It gave me another reason to learn Spanish. The Mediterranean Sea is so beautiful. Overall, the trip was really fun and it gave me a chance to discover more beautiful places and get to know people better.

3/28 Journal

As we are shoved into a small jail cell together with other forks and knives, we are screaming for help, but no one hears us. There's a decreasing amount of light as the drawbridge from the jail goes up. Everything is now dark. All of a sudden, it starts raining from the inside of the jail. We are splashed with burning hot water and a cirtus soap. After a few minutes of the torture, wind comes through the jail to dry us. The drawbridge comes down again and we are freed by hands. We find ourselves back in our drawer, our home.

3/18 Journal

If I could invent one thing to help mankind, it would be a garden ray gun. There would be like one per county and it would help people in areas where there is little food. Not all areas of the world have good conditions to be able to grow food. The person named by the county would go around to different houses and shoot the ray at wherever the owner wants it, and it would set the foundation of a healthy garden. Then, the owner of the property can grow a lot of food and everyone will be able to be fed.

Character Description

Celeste -

Strengths:
Book-smart
Has a lot of common sense
Sticks with her beliefs
Very moral, not rebellious

Weakness-
Insecure about looks
Considered doing things to change her looks before the experiment
Extreme

Andy - Like Celeste but more influenced by culture

Strengths-
Tough
Smart
Resourceful

Weakness-
Vulnerable to opinion

possible slogans for gov
"the beautiful work for it"

Short story prewriting

The setting of my story will be in a major city called Catropolis, a hundred years from now.

PLOT
Introduction- Celeste wakes up from the frozen state and is really confused about where she is. She finds out that she is a science experiment gone wrong and she runs out of the lab for freedom. She looks on the streets for any sign of a familiar face.

Rising Action- Celeste walks around and notices that all the girls have pin straight hair, clear skin, faces covered in makeup, plastic looking bodies, and absolutely no signs of aging. The guys have a lot of muscle, and show no emotion. It doesn't seem like there's a flaw. Things look generally the same, but a lot more slick, new, and fancy. The girl notices how helpless she looks and approaches her to help. Celeste is skeptical and doesn't open up to the girl right away. She looked vaguely familiar. Her name was Andy. She seemed nice but Celeste couldn't trust anyone yet. She does mention, however, that she needs a place to stay. They go to the apartment and Celeste sees the calendar that says August 10th, 2111.

Conflict - Celeste will find out that Andy is really her in 2111, but because her existence was frozen the advertising sector as part of the government needed the void of her existence to be filled. She wasn't considered to be alive nor dead during the 100 years.

Dream

Once I had a dream that I married a guy that was two feet tall. I was really tall, and he had to stand on a phone book to kiss me at the wedding. Everyone in my family adored him, and the wedding was pretty happy. I didn't even know the guy very well, but apparently I just wanted to make my family happy. My cousin was the flower girl!

Another dream I had a little bit ago was really weird. There were a couple of friends who I had drifted from at my house. One of them kept saying I couldn't hang out with the other, and then that friend kept telling me that if I didn't play Call of Duty with them, I couldn't be friends with them. I spent the whole time trying to balance out the friendships. The COD friend kept yelling at me about how I had to pay to play with him and how he came over specifically to play the game with me. I didn't even want to play, but I wanted to be his friend. Weird.

When I was little, I used to have a reoccurring dream that I would be at a birthday party in the basement of a warehouse. Every time we were about to eat cake, a mud monster would come to chase us around but there was only one way out - the window. I would have to hide until it scared me enough that I woke up. I would wake up and get really scared. I think there's a character like it in Candyland (a game I played with regularity) so I probably got the image from that. I'm not sure why I would have a dream like that.

I wish someone had told me...

I wish someone had told me about the reality of high school. The truth of how grades would translate into scholarship money didn't quite hit me until I started looking at colleges. I'm not ashamed of the GPA I have, but it would have been nice if I had tried a little harder so that it would help me out in the future. It seems like I actually did get the warnings, but I was too focused on external forces in my life to realize that it was up to me to actually make everything right. I figured everything would figure itself out eventually, and that I was a decent enough student to be average. I didn't think I could actually do great things. I thought there was always going to be someone better than me and I shouldn't bother trying being better than them. I'd constantly compare myself to the "smart kids". If I got a B- on a test, and someone else got a B on the test, I probably wouldn't strive to do any better because that's what I figured my place would be, because they were smarter than me. As time went on in high school, I felt I gained more control over what I could be doing with my life. However, I still had to make up for the times where I didn't feel like I had that control. I just wish I had taken the warnings more seriously. I might be having a bit better luck with scholarship and grant money in my college searches. Overall, I know things are in my control and I hope to improve all of that in college.

Science Fiction

Two books I've read that I really like the message of are Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451. The authors both say something about where humans are in the future based on where we are now. I think it'd be interesting to write something about the fashion industry and its definition of "beautiful" and how this corrupts peoples' self image. More people are getting plastic surgery and starve themselves, while others are told to hate themselves due to being overweight. It's a subject that really bugs me. So, maybe I'll write a story from a Brave New World approach and make it seem like everyone is doing these things to show how corrupt this industry will become if we continue on this way.

Shoe

As a kid, I had always waited for the day when they would come out with a shrink ray. Finally, my generation got the first one. We live in 2030. My dad got me one for my birthday! I heard they are really expensive because they're so new. This is a big day for me because we aren't exactly bursting with money. I start shrinking everything I can find. Eventually, I accidentally shrink my shoe. I try using the reversing effects on the ray. They don't go the way I plan. Instead, the shoe grew and grew! I have no clue what to do with it. I didn't want my dad to see it because then he would never let me use it again. I have to get it to the warehouse where the rays are made to see if they can fix it. I get the idea of putting spare wheels on the bottom and rolling it down the hill to the warehouse. Hopefully it ends up okay. It turns out I can use the laces to steer! I got the shoe out of the house through the side door and start rolling it and jump in. Besides the fact that I ran (no pun intended) a lot of red lights, I made to the warehouse in one piece. It turns out that all the rays are faulty because of this feature. They have to recall all of them. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Who knows what they will come out with next!

My Journey on a Pirate Ship.

One day, I woke up and decided that I wanted to finally follow through on my dream of becoming a pirate. I knew I had to select a fine crew to explore the sea with. I walked around to different taverns and asked around about people with special skills. After talking to many different people, I had a crew of about six others. My uncle lived a pirate life, but then died in a battle. He left his old ship to me. When he was alive, he ranted about a treasure map that he once found. He had hidden it on his ship, but told me the location of the map right before he died. We took three days repairing the ship. Then, it was ready to sail. Everybody took a different position in the boat and got ready to push off from the dock. After a few hours of sailing, we came across another ship. They shot random objects from their cannons to try to hurt us. Fortunately, our ship was twice the size of theirs and three times as sturdy. All we had to do was shoot one cannon that put a tiny hole in their boat to get them to back off once and for all. The captain of the other ship shouted something about getting revenge, but we didn't take it very seriously. We knew we could take them again, anyway. Who knew how long it would take before we would find the treasure?

Picture.

Every night before he went to sleep, Gary would see a moving shadow in his garden. He ran out with a shovel to see if he could find whatever the running object was. He would have no such luck. Then, the next morning he would find that all of his precious and award-winning plants were destroyed. This had been happening for months. He was really frustrated. One day, he decided to try putting out a trap. The plan didn't work for a week. But then one morning, he walked outside and found a huge rabbit in his trap! He decided to take the rabbit to animal control. It was the biggest rabbit they had ever seen. Gary got some money for finding this huge rabbit. It was enough to make up for the money he had lost because of the damaged plants. He let the rabbit run free far away from his house, so it would never attack his plants again.

Technology writing project

http://storybird.com/books/love-279/

CARS

Lightning McQueen lost his steering wheel. It was a very depressing day for him. He wouldn't be able to race or go much of anywhere because he couldn't control his movements. The whole day, he had a really poor attitude because he was stuck in the garage. Sally stopped by to cheer him up, but it just made it worse because he saw that she could still drive around wherever she pleased. Then, Sally had a really great idea. She would get everyone in the town to help out Lightning McQueen. Half of the people went driving around to look for the lost steering wheel, while the other half went sang a song for McQueen. It cheered him up a lot. Then, Mater decided he could tow Mcqueen around so that he wouldn't be stuck in the garage all day. They both had a lot of fun even though Mater couldn't drive very fast. They hadn't been able to just hang out one-on-one in a while. They caught up on the latest news of one another. McQueen eventually got his mind off of the fact that he was missing the big race taking place that day. He was just happy that his friends were there for him to cheer him up. It was dark when they pulled back into the town. There was a group of their fellow cars circled around something. The two cars got a closer look. It was McQueen's steering wheel! They also had news that the race was rescheduled to a week later. McQueen was victorious in the race.

Paper shredder!

It's really a war out in the world! I just saw my best friend the notecard get shredded apart by that terrible machine. What did we do to deserve such crazy treatment? We're innocent creatures. And it's not like we exactly have a getaway plan. Not having legs will do that to you.

Our stack of paper sits on the front desk of Mr. Mullbery's fourth grade class. I am the top sheet of this stack of spelling tests. We've been graded and now we're in the place where a billion of our relatives have been: in line to go to our shredded death. I can feel the other sheets trembling under me. We don't know when it will happen. The crazy man loves doing this to us. He doesn't think we feel the pain. He doesn't know how it feels to see a family member shredded apart from under him.

Suddenly, I feel a hand wrap around all of my friends and I.

We are put into a folder as we hear the words, "save for parent-teacher conferences all year."

Being saved felt great, even if it meant being handled by the hands of parents from now until the end of the year.

Yep.

Marian Bartsch and Joey Catsalgi met on his first day of work. It actually doesn't really matter that he had a rough childhood because even people with rough childhoods can find love. Not a big deal. He thought she was beautiful. So like any sane man, he asked her out for a cup of coffee after work. Being the thirty-year-old people they were, it was very informal. Marian didn't know what to think. She thought he was pretty great looking, too. The coffee date turned into dinner, which turned into a movie night, which turned into them falling asleep on Joey's couch in each others arms. They knew that they had both hooked something special. So they kept dating. Until a couple of months later, Marian hadn't noticed a lot of Joey's really annoying habits and then they slowly stopped dating. He would twitch every time she said the word "sock." He was also really messy. She hated it whenever he cooked at her apartment because he left everything a complete mess. Eventually he got really clingy and she couldn't take it anymore. Joey also thought she was too focused on work. It just wasn't meant to be. It goes to show that not all love stories have happy endings. Cool. Later, Joey married a supermodel who was willing to do whatever he wanted to do at any time of day, and Marian discovered she was a lesbian, and that was fine. She found a woman and they got married in Iowa. The wedding was very happy and her and her wife have been together ten years. Marian and Joey didn't stay in touch, and there was no "rediscovered connection" between them. They were two people who once worked at the same law firm. And they both eventually lived happily ever after, separately.

Cousin

Little cousin,
I wish you saw your own talent
and potential and opportunity
the world is a pretty great place
for all that you will want to do.

Little cousin,
Don't give up on yourself
you're fantastic
and still so young.

Little cousin,
The world will be tough on you,
I have no doubt
but I know you'll be okay
because you're strong
whether or not you realize it.

Last day to live

If I had unlimited resources on my last day to live, I would do a lot of things. I would probably spend a big chunk of my day with my sister and a couple of my best friends. I'd go buy them anything they want and help them pay off any debt they have. I'd want to die knowing people around me are happy. Then, I'd go skydiving, four wheeling, tubing, and a lot of other things I either haven't gotten the chance to do, or like doing. Then I'd go to a sports game (Twins or Wild) with those people and make sure we have really great seats and just have a lot of fun. Then, after the game I might tell them what's going on and try to let as many people as I can know that I am thankful for them being in my life. At the end of the day, I would rent out a huge space and invite all my family (even fly them into town earlier if necessary) to a huge dinner party so that I'm the happiest when I have to die at the end of that day.

Memories & accomplishments.

• Being a role model for my cousin.
• Getting into all the colleges I've applied to so far.
• Getting my drivers license
• Working toward my boating license
• Road trips
• Helping my sister move in and out of her old apartment.
• West Coast family barbeques
• Summers
• Grad parties
• Fourth of July
• Backpacking 110km in Spain

Beach

waves
creep up
in between
my toes and rush
back down farther than
they were before, the tides
rush in and out, in and out
people stroll slowly down the beach
as if they have nowhere else to go
another calm day at the sunny beach

How ridiculous was I?

How ridiculous was I as an octopus for halloween when I was eight. My goofy costume kept twisting itself up as I marched up to doors as I was trick or treating. I'm guessing I looked totally silly. I would walk around and pretend I was about to drench someone by slapping water my tentacles. All the people who passed out candy stared out in amazement and applauded my mom for her creativity. It was clearly a hand sewn and stuffed costume. The blue and purple dyed sheets suggested that even halloween costumes could be semi-realistic. While most of the other kids were Pokemon or ghosts, I was flailing about in my creative octopus costume.

Acrostic Poem

Allie
Loves
Life
In between fun, challenges, and chances.
Even though
More
Often than not it is hard
Or seems impossible
Reedeming qualities of living and opportunity make
Everything work out in the end.

Changin' the world.

There are a lot of things I would do to change the world. First, I would make sure that there were multiple ways for EVERYONE to get the news in an unbiased way. News stations, newspapers, and basically everything we have is biased in some way. It'd be nice if we just had at least one source that laid it all out there so we could form our own opinions. This would make people a lot less ignorant. I realize that there's not a lot that can be done to reform the government so that there aren't so many power struggles between the houses, but I'd certainly try to figure out a way where everyone could more easily come to a decision. Then, I would fix the fact that so many extra things get tacked on to bills. Bills should be more straight to the point so that we have more getting either passed or failed without a bunch of "fine print" reading. Moving onto international affairs, I'd probably try to make people think more like John Lennon in the song Imagine. People should start thinking in terms of the human race instead of money, power, and personal goals. What's the point of having other people around if we aren't looking out for each other in the larger scheme of things? I think that would save us a ton of money because we wouldn't be spending so much money on war and defense and we could actually get to the root of the real problems. If we stopped kicking brick walls all the time, then we could actually help people get their needs met.